U.S. corporate heavyweights urge Obama to approve Keystone XL

CALGARY • Anti Keystone XL campaigners have celebrities Robert Redford, Neil Young and Daryl Hannah in their corner, but proponents of the Alberta-to-Texas pipeline have lined up the big guns of U.S. business to press the case with President Barack Obama.

Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of AT&T Inc.; Marijn Dekkers, CEO of Bayer AG; Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE, are among 165 top American business leaders who “expressed strong support for the approval of the project” in an Oct. 9 letter to the White House.

“Though we represent a diverse group of industries, we share a common belief in the importance of this project to the broader American economy,” the business leaders write.

“We know your administration is carefully considering the environmental risks associated with Keystone XL, as it should. Those risks, like those incumbent in many other significant projects, must — and can — be managed, through appropriate regulation and careful stewardship. Keystone XL will meet nearly 60 special conditions set by regulators to minimize risk, and ultimately the net environmental impact of the pipeline would be minimal.”

The list also includes: James McNerney, Jr., chairman and CEO of the Boeing Co.; Gregory Page, chairman and CEO of Cargill Inc.; David Cote, chairman and CEO of Honeywell International; Greg Brown, chairman and CEO of Motorola Solutions Inc.; Eric Spiegel, president and CEO of Siemens; George Oliver, CEO of Tyco; Alan Miller, Chairman and CEO of Universal Health Services, Inc.

The business leaders say the U.S. economy is at an inflection point, and whether growth remains modest or pick up speed depends on maintaining investor confidence and strengthening America’s competitiveness. They say the decision on Keystone XL will affect both.

The backing raises the stakes for President Obama, who is expected to decide early in 2014 whether to allow the project.

A final environmental impact statement was expected this month. But the U.S. government shutdown could delay the review because agencies that were supposed to weigh in had a large number of their staff furloughed, a State Department official said Thursday.

With his environmental base clamoring for rejection, President Obama has repeatedly delayed making a decision. This summer he derided the project’s job creation potential and said it won’t be allowed if it results in a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford said she was pleased with the high-level, U.S. corporate support. It “speaks to many of the same points that our government, the federal government and other Premiers of all political stripes have raised with American decision makers on this important project,” she said in a news release. “I thank the leaders from across the United States who signed their name to this letter, for their critical contribution to the ongoing conversation on the Keystone pipeline.”